Exploring

We have been spending some more time exploring the forest roads around Selçuk. We started with the forest road between Camlık and Şirince, from Camlık. We had expected this to link with the Selçuk to Şirince forest road. It starts near the quarry, off the main highway, and winds up toward the ridge. This is not a hard climb, the road is not steep, but it is long. The road then heads along the ridge for a while affording views of Selçuk, before heading off the ridge towards Şirince. When we first walked along the ridge the weather was hazy, we did not realise how spectacular the view was when the air is clear. As said we had expected this road to link to the Selçuk to Şirince road, but it did not. Instead it came out in the hills to the south of Şirince, where it is possible to take a steep footpath down to the village, a path we knew because we had been this way with Zirve a few weeks back.

This is a fairly long walk, took us about 5 hours, there is the initial climb, then it is reasonably level, before slowly descending to above Şirince, then the steep footpath down (or follow the road for a little longer and wind more slowly down to the village).

Intrigued by the roads not connecting as we initially thought we had another explore. Starting in Selçuk we took the Şirince forest road to its summit, where it continues down to Şirince, we knew there was another track branching off at this point in the general direction of Camlık. This is initially quite a hard climb from Selçuk, but the road is paved at this point making it a bit easier on the feet. From the summit we took the track we suspected would take us towards Camlık. This is steep in places, heading up, the views down towards Selçuk, and Pamucak getting better as we climbed. As suspected it did eventually link with the Camlık to Şirince road, pretty much at the point where the Camlık to Şirince road leaves the ridge and starts to slowly drop towards Şirince. Not wanting to go to Şirince again, we decided to head for Camlık. This time along the ridge the air was clear and the views spectacular. At one point it was possible to see the bay near Guzelcamli, the mountains of the millipark behind, and Samos, and to turn and look the other way and see Pamucak, Yoncaköy, and the coast heading towards Őzdere. Very very impressive. Well worth the gruelling climb all the way from Selçuk.

It took us a little under 5 hours at a leisurely pace to get to Camlık, it would take less time going in the other direction – less up and a lot more down.